2014 Annoucement

Hello!

We are changing how things work at Inspired Comics Collective. We're not planning to make any new members only anthologies. This also means we are not going to have a collective table at events anymore. This is to do with boring administration reasons and we are all still good friends. We formed as a group way back in spring 2008 and it has been a lot of fun learning how to make comics together. Thank you to everyone who has been a member or helped us along the way.

I am going to keep this blog up to date with members news. There are some exciting personal projects you might have spotted which will be continuing this year.

I'm going to start with some news from Gem Sheldrake. The Wastelands has recently been added to the Comixology app for mobile devices. Click here for more information on downloading it.

Jack Davies has also made Alex The Abomination available for pdf download. Click here for more information on downloading it. You can also interact with Alex herself through Facebook and Twitter.

What's The Time Mrs. Woolf? is a quarterly zine created by Sarah Fogg and Lily-rose Beardshaw. The new Winter issue is available online through Sarah Fogg's Etsy Shop.

If you would like to buy a copy of our last anthology Mixtape. I have 5 copies left and they are available to order online through my Etsy Shop.

I'll be back here in a couple of weeks with some more news
Thank you very much to everyone who supported us as a group or bought our anthologies
Sammy Borras 
Prefer Tumblr? www.inspiredcomics.tumblr.com
Prefer Blogger? www.inspiredcomics.blogspot.com  

Free Mini Comics at Manchester MCM Expo!

 

We have been working hard at making new things to take to Manchester MCM Expo this Saturday! You can find our table in the Comics Village! We try to make new free mini comics to hand out at events every year. Sarah and Lily have made this cute mini version of the What's The Time Mrs. Woolf? zine.  

 

 

Sarah's new free mini comic is a new story featuring Patience! 

 

And this is my own new free mini comic about the Giant Rhinos characters.

And if you're interested in making your own free mini comics or zine I have a bunch of theses mini comic/work sheets. I printed them for a workshop which didn't actually go ahead in the end. So I'll have them somewhere on the table for anyone who is interested.

The secret password for the free mini comics is 'do you have a business card?'

I'll be back with more previews later in the week - probably Thursday!

Thanks!
Sammy 
Prefer Tumblr? www.inspiredcomics.tumblr.com
Prefer Blogger? www.inspiredcomics.blogspot.com

What's The Time Mrs. Woolf? Call For Entries

whatsthetimemrswoolf:

Greetings dearest Woolves! Sarahwoolf here with some news about the zine.

As of this month, we will be publishing What’s the Time, Mrs Woolf? every three months, rather than every two. This is mostly because Lilywoolf and Sarahwoolf (me!) just don’t have time to do our day jobs, our freelance work and a bi-monthly zine, and this has lead to Lilywoolf taking many breaks from the zine and Sarahwoolf doing almost nothing but the zine. We hope that publishing only four issues per year, rather than six, will be more manageable. (Not to mention Sarahwoolf’s poor mother won’t have to print quite so many tracing paper overlays. I love you, Mum!) Hopefully this will also make it easier for all of you to contribute, as there will be more warning for each deadline.

As there will be four zines per year, we’ve also decided to base them on seasons, rather than months. WTTMW will now come out as Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter issues! These loosely correspond to months as follows:

Spring: March, April, May
Summer: June, July, August
Autumn: September, October, November
Winter: December, January, February

Under this new system our next issue will be the Spring issue! We’re setting the deadline at the 1st of May. Remember you can submit anything you like, from illustrations to articles to puzzles and recipes. We already have some lovely work from the defunct March/April issue and we’re looking forward to seeing more!

What's The Time Mrs. Woolf? is a zine created by Sarah and Lily. We sell the issues on the Inspired table at events. The project has an open submissions system so check out their website for contact details!

Thanks
Sammy

Monster pre London MCM Expo 2012 post!!

Inspired Comics will be at London MCM Expo for the first time! We'll be in the comics village and you can find our table on row C. We'll be there Friday though till Sunday! The images above are the covers for all the anthologies we've created as a collective that will be available from the event.

Sarah and Lily's What's The Time Mrs Woolf? has been running for a whole year! The latest issue has a spooky theme and I'm very excited that its ready to take to London at the weekend. (I'm not sure which back issues are in stock, but don't worry because you don't need to read in a particular order)

Sarah will be around all weekend so I hope she is bringing plenty of copies of her mini comics The Bad Fairy Bakery and Patience is a Virtue

Sarah and I have also created our first music zine this autumn! It features articles, illustrations and comics featuring Blur, The Kinks, Everything Everything, Peace, Gorillaz, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Helen Arney, Bellatrix, Gil Scott-Heron, Ghostpoet, DANGER DOOM, The Subways, The Clash, Elastica, Phillipa Hannah, The Unthanks and Young Knives

I'll be taking my new comic Jumping The Shark, a sequel to Best Day Ever. The printed version of the webcomic includes an exclusive bonus comic! I'll also have copies of some of my mini comics.

Shaz will also be around for some of the weekend and I'll be taking copies of her comic Thin Ice which was created for her final major project earlier in the year.

And we'll have the usual badges, stickers, plectrums, bookmarks post cards and art cards!

 

We've also photocopied a limited amount of free mini comics and zines to bundle together and hand out at the event

I think thats everything - listing it all feels like a test!

Thanks again for reading and maybe I'll see you at the weekend!
Sammy

FREE MINIATURE ZINE LIBRARY

Hello! We're going to be at Manchester MCM Expo tomorrow and these photos are of the free stuff that will be available from the table (while stocks last). The bundles have rotating covers and all include 3 A7 hand folded mini zines and a fold out poster.

The What's The Time Mrs. Woolf? Free Mini Zine contains tiny articles by Lily and Sarah, illustrations by Clem and a new Stale Symphony comic by Sammy. Patience is a Virtue: The Mystery of the Nightboy is a free 6 page mini mystery comic by Sarah Fogg. The Crossroads is the latest free mini comic by Sammy Borras and folds out into a A4 poster.

We will also have copies of What's The Time Mrs. Woolf? Issue 5: The Hairy Issue which was released this week!

I also printed some full colour versions of the mini comic which fold out into a A3 poster. Visit www.giantrhinos.co.uk for more information on the Giant Rhinos project. (Sorry about the photo quality)

I'm hoping that I will be able to offer inked portraits and personal commissions while at the event (as long as I don't catch the head cold that's going around work). For more information on prices click here.

Thanks! See you there!
Sammy

The Butcher and the Tattooist

The Butcher and the Tattooist by Lily-rose Beardshaw is the next comic featured in our new food themed anthology, Eat Me! Lily originally worked on the story while doing a year of university studies in Brussels and translated the project for our anthology. Below are some of the original development work with notes in french. 

As well as translating the language some of the places have been edited for the anthology version. Lily told me that the french super market Carrefour, became Tesco, and the Canal du Charleroi became the Thames but Marc's name is still spelt the french way. Borough Market abattoirs were originally the Abattoirs d'Anderlecht. Most of the characters are based on real faces Lily sketched at a market in Brussels. 

Lily recently finished a internship with the London Print Studio and their Parallel Lives anthology is available through Amazon. 

Thanks again

Sammy 

Food Anthology - Progress

Hello! The members of Inspired Comics are busy working away on a new anthology. We've picked a Food theme this time and I'm going to be blogging some design and development work and little previews over the next couple of months before the release. The first pages I was sent to blog about are some potato based comic pages by Harry Griffin-Hayes and you can find more of his comics on his blog.  

Lily-rose Beardshaw has been involved in helping with the London Print Studio anthology - they are having an exhibition launch party tonight. It might be a bit late for you to head to London but I think there is information on the site to get hold of their anthology or read all the interesting things the interns have been getting up to. 

Thanks for reading this blog and keep your eye on this space for more food themed stuff and any other comicing news we have

Sammy

2012 News

Hello! I have some news for this spring term.

Inspired will be with Itch Publishing and helping with the art competition at Midlands MCM Expo in Telford on Saturday 18th February. You can find the information for this years competition here or see last years winners here.

I can also confirm we will have a table at Bristol Comic Expo in May.

What's The Time, Mrs. Woolf? is a feminist zine created by Sarah and Lily. Issue 2 was released recently containing comics, illustrations and articles by a couple of Inspired's members. Both issues are available to buy from their online shop and hopefully from our table at events. (Zine cover by Meg White) The zine has an open submission system so check their website if you would like to get involved!

Thanks!
Sammy

Post Thought Bubble 2011

We had a great time at Thought Bubble this year. Thank you very much to anyone who bought a copy of Science Fiction Octuple Feature or anything else from our table. I forgot to take any photos so I've doodled up a diagram. People in the drawing are Sammy, Sarah, Lily and Shaz. 

Book covers that are not our anthologies are The Wastelands by Gem Sheldrake, Best Day Ever by Sammy Borras and What's The Time Mrs. Wolf? created by Sarah and Lily with a cover by Jennifer Denty. 

If you couldn't make it to the event our anthologies are available though our Big Cartel site. 

We're starting to make plans for next year already, so hopefully this blog is going to stay active with personal projects and new development work. 

Thanks again!

Sammy 

London Print Studio Workshops

I've mentioned before that Lily from Inspired comics collective is also involved in The London Print Studio comics stuff this year. They have recently announced the dates for their free comics workshops. It all sounds really cool so I'm just linking you up :)

Thanks

Sammy

Jacked In

This weeks preview is from Jacked In, a comic written by Laura McNulty and illustrated by Sammy Borras (that's me). We work together a lot and I always have fun making things with friends. Laura has been busy studying Japanese at university but I'm sure we'll find the time to make comics together again sometime in the future. Recently I have been creating lot of short story comics for the web and other group projects. I'm very excited about the launch of Ink+Paper this autumn, a thick comic/magazine organised by David O'Connell.

I mentioned last week that Lily was working on some projects but I wasn't sure how much I could tell you, but since last week they have been announced so I will fill you in. The LondonPrintStudio are running a comics course and Lily is one of 6 interns to get a place. I'm looking forward to following Lily's work and their group projects on their Comics Collective blog.

Lily is also working with Sarah on a zine for women. I'm hoping that it will be available to buy from our table at Thought Bubble, but I will make sure to let you know when it is officially released and how you can get hold of a copy.

I'll be back with more previews and news next week and hopefully some photos of our comic in print! it gets more and more exciting every week :)

Thanks again!
Sammy

Planet Rabbit & extra covers

This an absolutely lovely preview page from the second comic in the anthology, Planet Rabbit by Lily-rose Beardshaw. I know Lily is working on some other projects at the moment but they've not been published online yet so I don't know if I'm allowed to ruin the surprise. I will keep an eye out for an announcement and let you know but the best place to keep up to date with Lily's projects will be on her blog. You can also find this great un-submitted cover design which contains characters from different stories in the anthology drawn in Lily's style. 

I am very pleased that the four other covers that were left over will be featured in the inside of the comic and  they will be in  full colour! Covers by Sarah Fogg, Jack Davies and Gemma Sheldrake.

Thanks again
Sammy

A Thousand Empty Heavens & Cover

We've finalised the anthology line up and everything is nearly all ready to be printed. I'm getting very excited now. Over the next 2 months I'm going to post a 1 page preview from each comic and let you know what exciting things we're all up to ready for Thought Bubble in November.

I'm featuring the comics in order they appear in the book. This is a little preview of A Thousand Empty Heavens by Sarah Fogg. There is always excellent stuff posted on her blog regularly so make sure you're following her. 

After many different anthology title ideas we chose 'Science Fiction Octuple Feature' which was suggested by Lily-rose Beardshaw. The cover that won the voting we did was my own design, but I've decided to add little previews from the 8 comics on the back because I think they're all great. I really wanted to use all the submissions we had for covers, but I'm pleased the others will all be printed in full colour within the anthology. 

Because the image was re-sized for the internet I've added a larger version of the previews. Contributors are Sarah Fogg, Lily-rose Beardshaw, Laura McNulty (writer), Sammy Borras, Cat Reda, Luke Bayliss (writer), Harry Griffin-Hayes, Shaz Jubeen, Jacob Boniface (writer), Jack Davies and Gemma Sheldrake. So weekly I'll be blogging a preview page. 

Thanks for reading

Sammy